The present invention relates in general to mining devices and, in particular to a new and useful scraper chain conveyor having a rack thereon for the chainless feed of winning machines which extract material from the longwall of an underground mine, such as a coal mine, where the conveyor comprises a plurality of conveyor sections which have junctions therebetween that are bridged by feed segments, the feed segments connected together to form the rack.
In the course of the development to chainless feeding systems for winning machines that remove material from the longwall or open face of mines in underground mining, that is, in so-called long front mining, a number of proposals have been made and also partly realized in practice. The winning machines were provided, to this end, with separate drives and road on toothed rods or racks that were necessary for the feed or travel of the winning machines across the longwall. These racks were associated in various ways with the scraper chain conveyors which were used as longwall conveying devices for conveying the material removed from the wall out of the mine.
In known chainless feeding systems, the drive for the winning machine is effected on the scraper chain conveyor at the cog side or side of the conveyor away from the mine face (e.g. DOS 2530 754). This arrangement is suitable when the longwall is sufficiently thick, so that the winning machine can be arranged above the conveyor.
If the longwall is thin, however, the winning machine must be arranged at the face side of the conveyor, next to the longwall, so that the longwall conveyor has a sufficiently large cross section for conveying. Because of the anticipated decrease in the thickness of the seam, more and more of the above-mentioned conditions can be expected.